Much has been made of the Republican’s 2012 postmortem, in which they attempted to answer the pressing question, why does everyone think we suck? The conclusion they reached, that it was mostly a messaging problem, was so obviously misguided that Democrats could only chuckle in response: they must be missing the point on purpose, right? That’s the only thing that could explain such a shallow, obtuse analysis. [Read more...]

Let me set the scene: it was 2005, and I’d been working in the domestic violence field about six months. It was my first real job as an activist, the realization of a hazy, amorphous dream I’d left a Ph.D. program to chase (albeit in a roundabout way). I was in that exciting phase when you first start something new, and everything’s novel and fascinating just for its own sake. I was constantly amazed by what I was learning. I’m telling you this because the key thing to understand about me back then is that I was still capable of being shocked: [Read more...]

Today the Senate votes, again, on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), so everyone brace yourselves to read a lot of bad reporting on it. It’s not all the reporters’ fault; political reporters have a problem, which is that people who like to write about policy tend to be wonks, whereas the people who end up reading their stories mostly aren’t. [Read more...]

In punditry news this week, Sarah Palin’s relentless stupidity is riling up her party’s establishment, to the extent that that group can be riled, and she also reportedly ran afoul of crazy old coot Roger Ailes. Normally, Sarah doesn’t mind pissing people off, because she has shrewdly deduced that totally infuriating everyone on Earth gets her page views and speaking gigs, so whatevs. [Read more...]